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HARRISSE'S DISCOVERY OF NORTH
AMERICA.*

BY

GEO. C. HURLBUT.

In the preface to this weighty volume Mr. Harrisse
says (p. 7) : " Proceeding thus with great prudence, we
are nevertheless fully conscious of the uncertain and
provisional character of our deductions. We know too
well that a single name or a single date, unexpectedly
disclosed, will often suffice to overthrow the most con-
scientious and systematic adjustment of thoughtful
conclusions to well-investigated data. But we feel
that something of permanent utility will have been
achieved if we succeed in bringing into view the prin-
cipal elements of knowledge which are accessible at the
present time, and also in setting forth their literal
meaning, their purport and their importance. This
has been our sole aim, and this is the limit of our
ambition."

The book is a monument of industry and research,
and every scholar must feel a kind of personal obliga-

* The Discovery of North America. A Critical, Documentary and Historical
Investigation, with an Essay on the Early Cartography of the New World, in-
cluding Descriptions oi Two Hundred and Fifty Maps or Globes existing or lost,
constructed before the year 1536 ; to which are added a Chronology of One Hun-
dred Voyages Westward, Projected, Attempted or Accomplished between 1431
and 1504 ; Biographical Accounts of the Three Hundred Pilots who first crossed
the Atlantic, and a Copious List of the Original Names of American Regions,
Caciqueships, Mountains, Islands, Capes, Gulfs, Rivers, Towns and Harbours. By
Henry Harrisse. 4to. London and Paris, 1892.

566 Harrtssis Discovery of North America,

tion to its author. Other documents, as yet unknown,
will, no doubt, be brought to light in course of time to
claim their place among those which Mr. Harrisse has
so carefully arranged ; but it is not too much to say
that the order here established will not be seriously
disturbed.

Part First deals with the voyages, from that of John
Cabot in i497tothat of Estevam Gomez in 1524-1525.
In Part Second Mr. Harrisse describes the early cartog-
raphy, the maps of Seville and St. Di^ (which he pre-
fers to call St. Diey), the Portuguese charts and the
Lusitano-Germanic maps, of which he distinguishes
five types. Part Third presents a catalogue of the
oldest maps of America ; Part Fourth, a chronology of
voyages from 143 1 to 1504; and Part Fifth, biog-
raphies of pilots and cartographers for the period
1 492-1 5 50. The Appendix contains the Wardens' Ac-
counts of the Drapers' Company of London, March-
April, 1 52 1, concerning Sebastian Cabot, a Geograph-
ical Index and an Index of Names, and a list of Ad-
ditions and Corrections. Mr. Harrisse does not call
attention to a very important feature of his book, the
great number of maps and charts, which elucidate the
text.

The critical judgments recorded do not always com-
mand assent. Sebastian Cabot was not a model of
probity, but Mr. Harrisse pursues him with a rancour
that defeats itself. He considers the Wardens' Ac-
counts, printed in the Appendix, decisive concerning
Cabot's character, and he prints in italics the most
significant lines. The Wardens and Company of drapers
say :

Harrisse's Discovery of North America. 567

, . . as perfite knowledge myght be had by credible reporte of maisters and
mariners naturally bom within this Realm of England having experience, and
exercised in and about the forsaid Hand, etc., etc.

And we thynk it were to sore aventr to jopard v shipps with men i&^ goods vnto
the said Hand vppon the singuler trust of one man callyd as we vnderstond, Se-
bastian, which Sebastyan as we here say was neu' in that land hymself, all if he
maks reporte of many things as he hath hard his Father and other men speke in
tymes past. . . . if the said Sebastyan had bene there .

These passages show very plainly the hatred of the
London men for the foreigner, but as evidence against
Cabot they amount to nothing.

Chapter VI. (pp. 26-38) is devoted to an examina-
tion of Sebastian Cabot's character. On p. 34 Mr.
Harrisse expresses a decided opinion on the subject :

" Such proofs of constant mendacity and treason show that Sebastian Cabot
was capable of swerving from the truth whenever it might profit him."

If they are proofs, they prove that the man was not
to be trusted at any time ; but on p. 43 Mr. Harrisse
fortifies an argument by the testimony of Sebastian, and
utters his mind in these words :

" True it is that assertions from Sebastian Cabot, particularly when calculated
to enhance his merits in the eyes of others, must always be taken with a mental
reservation ; but, excepting his uiifilial custom of ascribing to himself a credit
which belonged to his father, we see no good reasons for rejecting his description
in this instance."

After dismissing the Cabots and the Corte-Reals,
Mr. Harrisse takes up the unknown navigators. In
discussing the nomenclature of the Cantino map, he
makes, on p. 88, the following quotation from Colum-
bus, as reported by Las Casas :

"Dice: que desde el cabo de Cuba que se ve con la Espanola, que llamo
Fin de Oriente, y por otro nombre Alpha et Omega, navego hacia el Poniente:
He says that from the Cape of Cuba, which is seen from Hispaniola, and which
he called The East-end, and also by the other name of Alpha and Omega, he sailed
northward."

The nature of his subject compels Mr. Harrisse to
display on every page his familiarity with many tongues,

568 Harrisse's Discovery 0/ North America.

and he generally offers a translation, as a concession to
the weakness of those who are unable to read the
Latin, Spanish and other citations. There can be no
doubt that he understands the original texts, but his
translations are often little better than paraphrases,
and sometimes, as in the passage just given, he laughs
in the reader's face.

Columbus says that he sailed towards the west
(navego hacia el Poniente) ; Mr. Harrisse translates,
"he sailed northward." *

A still more striking instance of respect for the
literal meaning of an author occurs on p. 165, where
the words of Bernal Diaz,

" Desde el rio de San Pedro y San Pablo y todo lo que descubriese,"

are translated as follows :

"All that which he might discover from the San Pedro and San Pablo river
northwards."

The Spanish text says nothing of north or south, but
only this, from the river of San Pedro and San Pablo
and all that he mis'ht discover.

Mr. Harrisse places the San Pedro and San Pablo
River on the Mexican Coast, south of Tampico, and
interpolates the word northwards in the translation,
because no discoveries were to be attempted south of
that river.

He says on p. 169 : " The Rio del Espfritu Santo is
our Mississippi." Other writers agree with him in this
opinion ; but Mr. Walter B. Scaife, in the supplement
to his work on the Geographical History of America,!

* This passage is corrected on p. 800.

t America: Its Geographical History, 1492-1892. Six lectures delivered to
Graduate Students of the Johns Hopkins University. With a Supplement, en-

Harrtsse's Discovery of North America. 569

gives excellent reasons for identifying the Rio del
Espiritu Santo with the Mobile River. Mr. Scaife
quotes (in translation) the description of the river and
country given by Navarrete (Viages y Desc, Tom. III.,
p. 65) in these words :

" They tamed back and entered a river of very great volume, at the mouth of
which there was a large town where they stayed more than forty days, repairing
the ships and trading with the natives, in the most friendly and amicable manner.
They travelled six leagues up the river and saw forty towns on the shores. This
was called the province of Amichel : good land, quiet, healthy, well stored with
provisions and fruits : its inhabitants wore many ornaments of gold in their noses
and ears."

Mr. Scaife argues that the expression, " of very great
volume," might be applied to a river much smaller than
the Mississippi, and was, in fact, so applied by Cortes
to the Panuco, which we regard as a small stream. The
statement that there was a large town at the mouth of
the river is evidence against the Mississippi, for the
land about the mouths of that river was practically un-
inhabited. Pineda is said to have ascended the river for
sixleaguesand to have found forty towns on its banks;
but, twenty-four years later, the remnant of De Soto's
expedition apparently found no towns on the lower
Mississippi. Moreover, the accounts of the soil, the
healthy climate and the riches of the inhabitants, cannot
be made to agree with the conditions of the Mississippi
delta. On the map of 1520, reproduced in Winsor's
Narrative and Critical History (Vol. II., p. 218), and on
the great Weimar map of 1527, the Rio del Espiritu
Santo is represented as flowing into a bay, wholly un-
titled. Was the Rio del Espiritu Santo of the Spanish Geographers the Mississippi ?
By Walter B. Scaife, Ph.D. (Vienna). Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press. l8g2.
8vo.

570 Harrisse's Discovery of North America.

like any conception of the Mississippi mouth, within
historical time.

The question is, perhaps, one of those which must
remain without a decisive answer for every one but
Mr. Harrisse.

In the chapter on Ayllon's First Voyage, Mr. Har-
risse quotes nearly three columns from Peter Martyr,
the sole origin, he says, of the narratives given by
Gomara and Las Casas. He finds it necessary, there-
fore, " to reproduce literally Peter Martyr's own ac-
count." This account begins (p. 199) with the mention
of a voyage, undertaken by some Spaniards to the
Bahama Islands (Lucayas) for the purpose of kidnap-
ping the natives :

Cupiditate igitur habendi lucaios (Lucayans), etc. ;

which Mr. Harrisse renders, with manifest hesitation,
as follows :

Prompted by the lust of possessing [?] the Lucayas, etc.

This conversion of slave-hunters into squatters hardly
does justice to the author ; and the rest of his text is
treated with freedom. On p. 200, lines 28-34 of the
Latin are condensed into three lines of English, and
three lines of the Latin (34-37) are not translated,
while in two places omissions are indicated in this
literal reproduction.

On the same page there are six breaks in the Eng-
lish translation, and the following passage is represented
by nothing in the Latin text :

" Sent us fifty of his followers loaded with products of the country."

On p. 201 there is one omission indicated in the
Latin, and there are six in the English, and passages in

Harrisses Discovery of North America. 571

each language have nothing corresponding to them in
the other. Text and translation fill only sixteen lines
on p. 202, but in these there are two breaks in the Latin
and three in the English, and two Latin passages are
not translated.

On p. 233 Mr. Harrisse wrestles again with Peter
Martyr, and confesses defeat by leaving the following
sentence untranslated :

"Inanes huius boni homtnis fore cogitatum exisitimaui (sic) ego semper et
praeposui." . . .

This is helpless Latin, but why is Peter Martyr made
to bear the responsibility for it?

The second part of the work, devoted to the early
cartography of the New World, is creditable to Mr.
Harrisse, who has given much time to the investigation
of this division of his subject. He is disposed to think
that the La Cosa map may be an authentic copy, rather
than an autograph ; and he refuses to believe that the
Spanish Government made any effort to monopolize
the construction of charts. On the contrary, he says,

' ' We are satisfied that map-making and the science of transatlantic navigation
were freely taught at Seville, and that cartography was always an art openly in-
culcated in that city, as well as in Cadiz or Palos, without any interference on
the part of the authorities."

Of the Canerio map, recently discovered by M. L.
Gallois, of Lyons, in the Archives du Service Hydro-
graphique de la Marine at Paris, Mr. Harrisse gives a de-
tailed description on pp. 428-430. The map represents
the world as known in 1 502-1 504 (to 1502, according
to M. Gallois") ; it is well drawn, and measures 2.25
metres (7.38 feet) by 1.15 metres (377 feet). It is
signed in the lower left-hand corner : Opus Nicolay de
Canerio Januensis. Mr. Harrisse is of the opinion that

572 Harrisse's Discovery of North America.

the map was made, or copied, by a Genoese cartog-
rapher in Portugal, because the legends are in Portu-
guese.*

There is a scale of latitudes extending from 75° N.
to beyond 55° S.

Mr. Harrisse quotes in full what he calls the precise
text of the two leading legends. One of these is over
the West Indies, and this is exactly given according to
the reproduction of the map by M. Gallois. The
second legend is on the Brazilian coast, and Mr. Har-
risse's text differs in a number of places from that of
the reproduction. Leaving out the bracketed words,
which Mr. Harrisse has added from the Cantino map,
the two legends read as follows :

harrisse's text: Brazilian coast.
Auera crus chamada per nome aquall achou pedaluares cabral fidalgo da cassa
del rey de portugall e uelle adescoiero por capitano do XIIII nauos que ley
mandaua a caliqut ie nel caracho induto poi com esta terra aqual terra secrem
esser terra foerme em aquel a muita gente de descricacam nuos omes e mulieres
como quas mais os pario sum mais biancos.

THE GALLOIS REPRODUCTION: BRAZILIAN COAST.

A vera crus chamada per nome aquall achom pedalvares cabral fidalgo da cassa
del rey de portugall e aelle adescobrio in dopor capitanio de XIIII navos que rey
mandana a caliqut ie nel caracho induto poi com esta terra aqual terra fuerem
esser terra fierme em a qua! ha muita gente de descriva vam nuos omes e mulieres
como quas mais os pario sum mais biancos.

Which of these two is the precise text ? f The char-

* M. Gallois, for the very same reason, believes that the work was done in Italy.
He says: " It is true that nearly all the nomenclature is in Portuguese ; but the
numerous mistakes which have crept into it seem to prove that the author was
ignorant of the Portuguese tongue. He certainly copies in many cases without
understanding. This map {portulan) must have been drawn in Italy, and very
probably at Genoa, after one of those models brought from Portugal, to which the
Italians at that time attached so high a value." — Bulletin de la SocUU de Gh-
graphie de Lyon (Mai-Juin, 1890, p. loi).

f The Alias of Dr. K. Kretschmer's Die Entdfckung Amerika's, the magnifi-
cent work ju^t published by the Berlin Geographical Society, follows the Gallois
reading, but with variations. It has e elle, mandaua, indoto, feme.

Harrisses Discovery of North America. 573

acter of the words in each supports M. Gallois in his
conclusion that the map is the work of an Italian who
did not understand Portuguese.

Mr. Harrisse makes a translation which seems to
give the sense of the legend. The last two sentences
of this translation read :

" They are rather white than dark, with smooth hair. The said land was dis-
covered in the year [one thousand] five hundred."

The final word of the text is biancos (translated white),
and Mr. Harrisse has drawn upon his inner conscious-
ness for the words that follow.

Fidelity to his author is for some reason or other,
distasteful to Mr. Harrisse, though he is severe upon
those who are not exact. On p. 304 he quotes and
translates as follows a passage from the Orbis noua de-
scription in the Ptolemy of 1 508 :

" Dixit, se navigasse ab Albionis australi parte, et tamdiu quoad subparallelum
ab subaequatore ad boream subgradum, 53 pervenit, et in eo parallelo navigasse
ad ortus littora per angulum noctis atque plures insulas lustrasse, quarum inferius
descriptionem assignabimus : — He said that he had sailed from the south of Eng-
land, penetrated to 50° (sic) north latitude, navigated on that parallel west in the
direction of the east, somewhat northwardly, and observed many islands."

Ruysch is here made to turn his back upon himself.
He really said that he had reached 53°, north latitude,
and had sailed on that parallel towards the lands of the
Orient by way of the west. The vioxAs somewhat north-
wardly are of Mr. Harrisse's invention.

On p. 381, in Toscanelli's letter, the words,

" Ego autem quamvis cognoscam posse hoc ostendi per formam spericam (sic)
vt est mundus, etc.,"

are translated :

" Although I know that it is a consequence of the spherical form of the earth,
etc."

The correct rendering is : " Although I know that

574 Harrisss's Discovery of North America.

this can be shown by a spherical body, such as is the
world," etc.

On the other hand, there are times when Mr. Har-
risse is literal to a fault. Toscanelli ends his letter
with the conventional phrase vale dilectisime, which
leaves the reader unmoved ; but the translation, good-
bye. Dearest, brings tears to the eyes.

On p. 432 a brief notice, headed y^^aw de la Cosa,
tells of a reference " taken by Navarrete from the Munoz
collection of MSS., the only source of information,
almost, used by Spanish savants to this day." There
is room under the almost for Mr. Harrisse's works, and
the savants may be comforted.

On p. 438 Mr. Harrisse describes, as if he had seen
it, a map which Behaim must have made at some time
between 1494 and 1507. If no such map is found, stu-
dents may still enjoy the description, and compare it
with that of Waldseemiiller's lost map on p. 444.

On .p. 457 Mr. Harrisse translates the same expres-
sion, via del Norte, occurring twice in five lines, in one
instance a north-western part, in another by the northern
track.

On p. 482, in a foot-note, is the following contribu-
tion to burlesque literature :

" We interpret Schoner's annotation near tlie West India islands by ' iste est
imperfectionem,' or, ' that stands corrected.' "

In another place (p. 308) Mr. Harrisse has charac-
terized Schoner as "that overrated Nuremberg cos-
mographer." It does not appear that he overrated him-
self, and certainly no cosmographer could have written
three Latin words so devoid of meaning as those for
which Mr. Harrisse has found an easy translation.

Harrisse's Discovery of North America. 575

His own familiarity with other tongues breeds in Mr.
Harrisse's mind indifference, if not contempt, for those
readers who must depend upon his English versions.
On p. 499 he quotes from Amoretti's Pigafetta a pas-
sage of four and a half lines, and translates only the
less significant part, as follows :

" When we were in the open sea, the Captain-General indicated to all the
pilots the points where they had to steer, and asked them what route they pointed
on their maps.''

Pigafetta says that the needle on Magellan's ships
pointed to the North Pole, deviating, however, a little
from the true north. This sentence is left out by Mr.
Harrisse, and then comes his quotation, as here trans-
lated :

" That our Captain-General very well knew, and so, when we found ourselves
sailing in the open sea, he asked of all the pilots, to whom he had already indicated
the point to which they were to steer, what course they marked on their charts, and
they all answered that they did not mark a true course, and that it was necessary
to correct the compass. ' '

Another instance of this indifference occurs on p.
537, in the following passage :

" Ung livre, escript en Latin sur parchemin, de lettres au mole, faisant men-
cion des illes trouvees, couvert de satin de Bruges verd,"etc. — "A book written in
Latin on parchment, mentioning the islands discovered, covered with green
Bruges satin." . . .

The words lettres au mole are not translated. They
mean, with pen-printed letters.

Much the most useful part of Mr. Harrisse's work is
that which contains the Chronology of Voyages, the
Biographical Notes, and the Geographical Index. The
data which he has brought together in these divisions
must always be of service, though his self-confident
tone here, as elsewhere, fails to win the reader. On p.

576 Harrisses Discovery of North America.

717, for instance, he closes the notice of Ferrer with
these words :

". . , said to have been sent for by the Infant Henry of Portugal, to manage
the famous Naval Academy of Sagres — which has never existed f'

Here also he translates with freedom. On p. 709 he
tells the story of Carrefto, who invoked the help of the
Virgin during a terrible storm and was answered by the
"Devil from the clouds, October 3, 1533 : ' Who cares
for her ? Que la quereys ? Qu^ la quereys ? ' "

The English may express the devil's innermost feel-
ing, but the Spanish words plainly mean : " What do
you want with her ? "

Some of the grave errors already noted, and many
more which have been passed over, may be due to haste
in the preparation of the volume ; but this considera-
tion does not lessen the author's responsibility.

The work required, and should have received, every
possible care in preparation and in revision. The orig-
inal texts quoted in various languages, each with its
antiquated or arbitrary spelling, especially needed exact
supervision ; and this no one of them can be said to
have received.

Mr. Harrisse's peculiar English frequently obscures
his meaning. On p. 258 he writes of the ''defence
directed to the Pilot-Major, to construct maps "; mean-
ing to say that the Pilot-Major was forbidden to con-
struct maps (for sale). On p. 356 he says that " neither
Mufioz nor Navarrete . . . make no further mention,"
etc. On page 387 it appears that a piece of poetry
" was composed of two parts, the first of which being
as follows." On p. 443 it is said that "we are not dis-
posed to deny . . . that it would not be proper " ; but

Harrisse's Discovery of North America. 577

the exact contrary is meant. On p. 1 1 1 the vast conti-
nental land in the La Cosa map is said to lay " adja-
cent the West Indies." On p. 663 Mr, Harrisse says
that he has made a list from names mentioned in vari-
ous documents, and " specially from the necronological
roll"; an original word, which finely combines the
ideas of death and time with disdain for etymology.

An occasional slip in a name, such as Columb (p. 674)
for Columbus, Beecher (p. 99) for Becher, or Cap Fear
River (p. 212), may be overlooked; but throughout
the book the Antilles are spoken of as the Antiliies,
and on p. s297 Mr. Harrisse has a bastard form, half
Portuguese, half Spanish, for the name of the island
which is rightly called Tristan da Cunha.

The printer has done his part to confuse the text.
Almost every page presents instances of the interchange
of n and u, c and e, or and u.

On p. 31, nanque is printed for namque ; on p. 88,
eins represents eius ; on p. 97, continentum appears for
continentem ; on page 104 is isolo for isola ; on p. 139,
micosgue for mirosque, and reperunt for reperiunt ; on
p. 146, Espanols for Espaflola ; on p. 155, cuato for
cuatro ; on p. 166, mas for mal ; on p. 167 we have
miror for mirar, and la for las ; on p. 1 68 hdcias otras
for hicia atras ; on p. 1 69, ni for nin, ningund for nen-
gund, descobiorto for descubierto ; on p. 181, decit for
dicit ; on p. 200 we find iandiu for iamdiu, plarique for
plerique, beneficentio for beneficentia ; on p. 432, sub
anni 1503-1515 ; on p. 436, addidis for addidit ; on p.
459, natalis for natali ; on p. 463, aislamentio for aisla-
miento ; on p. 525, Moluccas insults for insulas ; on p.
534, fecat for secat ; on p. 535, graeos for grados ; on

5/8 Harrissis Discovery of North America.

p. 537, Deux appemondes; on p. 556 appears for the
second time a passage, erroneously printed as follows
on p. 21 : "Terra nee 2iO Anglis primum fuit inventa,"
and there translated, " This land was first discovered
by the English."

This is a typical instance of the necessity for the
most careful proof-reading in such a book, nee and hec
(h^c) being Latin words with wholly different mean-
ings.

This list of printer's errors might have been very
much extended, without including any of the correc-
tions to be found on pp. 800-802. Allowing for these
errors, it may be said that those, who have time to ver-
ify and to correct Mr. Harrisse's statements and quota-
tions, will derive a measure of profit from the study of
his book.